It's the same engine, just evolved. Same development company makes the tool (Emergent Game Technologies). That was my point. Of course FO3 is optimized better just as TES IV is optimized better than TES III. It's an ongoing process.Same thing with user mods, really.
Right, i fust find it funny a that a newer game with higher requirements runs better. Same thing with Mass Effect, the second one looks and runs much better (though that is because ME1 is a port of a console game, while ME2 was co-developed for PC).
Forgot to add one important thing... character aesthetics. No offense to Beth artists (or Western artists, in general) but they really need to stop focusing on making "realistic" characters and instead focus on making "beautiful" or "appealing" characters. It's no wonder that aesthetic mods are some of the most popular for both Morrrowind and Oblivion, and that people on forums for other games such as Dragon Age have commented that Western artists need to take some lessons from East Asian artists, particular Japan and Korea.Yes, it's subjective, but again, there's a good reason that the aesthetic mods are so popular.
This i couldn't agree more if i tried, before TES i never knew elves could be ugly